A letter to the editor
Last week, the Illinois General Assembly raised the white flag and surrendered. The current leadership of the Illinois House and Senate decided that they would rather survive the November elections than make a serious effort at actually governing this state. So they punted, went home, and decided to put off any hard decisions on how to actually govern this state in a fiscally responsible manner to some time in the future.
It wasn’t that long ago that Illinois actually had a balanced budget, which incidentally is required under the Illinois Constitution. But over the last ten years, state government spending has increased by 39%, while our population has only increased 6.8%. Considering that our state budget is approximately 52 billion dollars, and we have a 13 billion dollar deficit, that means that Springfield has over promised and is spending 25% more than it’s taking in from Illinois taxpayers. With 12% unemployment in Illinois, families are sitting around the kitchen table, wondering how they’re going to stretch their budget to pay the bills, much less pay for their kids’ education. The last thing that we need is for Governor Quinn and Springfield Democrats to ask for even more of our hard-earned money. Yet somehow, the only solution that the political establishment in Springfield can come up with is to raise our taxes, or borrow even more money and drive our kids and grandkids even further into debt.
Before, they ask us for more of our money, I’d like Mr. Quinn and Mr. Madigan to explain to us what happened to all that money that they’ve spending these last few years. Illinois is currently 48th in the nation in job creation and our bond rating is second worst in the nation, next to California. From what I see here, the only thing we have to show for all that spending are lucrative pensions for state bureaucrats, and government salaries well above those in comparable jobs in the private sector. In the meantime, our tax and spend policies are driving businesses, and jobs, out of the state. I’m running for State Representative in the 59th District, because I believe that state government has a responsibility to account for our hard earned money that it spends. We need to conduct a comprehensive, line by line audit of every state agency, to account for every dime that government is spending. The days of automatic spending increases are gone. We need zero-based budgeting, where every state agency has to justify every dime of our money that they’re spending.
If enough of us go to Springfield, we can bring fiscal responsibility, accountability and jobs back to Illinois.
